Heat shock proteins in physiology and pathology: the Berlin meeting

Abstract

The IIIrd International Symposium on Heat Shock Proteins in Biology and Medicine took place at Charite University in Berlin, Germany, on 23-25 May 2006. This Symposium, concentrating on the physiological and pathological correlations associated with heat shock proteins and the stress response was organized in collaboration with the European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology (ESHO) and the Cell Stress Society International (Fig 1). It was the third in a series that began at Woods Hole, MA, USA, in 2000. The meeting attracted over 100 participants and included 41 oral presentations and 20 posters. It was most appropriate that the auditorium (Fig 2) was near the entrance to the Rudolf Virchow Krankenhaus (Fig 3), named for the father of modern cellular pathology. The meeting began with a return to roots with the session Molecular Chaperones. Bernd Bukau (University of Heidelberg, Germany) gave a beautiful presentation showing a novel function for HspllO family members as nucleotide exchange factors for Hsp70 proteins. He showed that the yeast hspilO homolog Sselp is a powerful nuclear exchange factor for yeast Hsp70 family members Ssal and Ssbl and that cells deficient in Sselp are sensitive to stress. Lawrence Hightower (University of Connecticut, USA) then spoke regarding members of the human Hsp70 family focusing on the hsp70B' isoform, the most strictly stress-inducible of the Hsp70 members. His studies indicate that hsp70B' performs a unique role in the stress response and is reciprocally regulated with other members of the Hsp70 family. The focus next switched to the small HSP in a presentation by Robert Tanguay (Laval University, Canada). Dr. Tanguay has shown in a number of publications in recent years a connection between the HSP and longevity. Indeed,